Easy DIY Table Runner Tutorial

I recently taught a class to a group of ladies at my church on how to make a simple table runner, and I thought I would share it with you as well. Even those with little or no sewing experience were able to complete their runners with no trouble, and you can too!

With Christmas right around the corner, a new runner is a great way to spice up any table and add a fun print or color to a dining room.

So, want to make a runner that’s fast, easy, and cute? It’s just four steps. Here we go!

Materials:

Front fabric – To make a 7′ long runner, you’ll need to buy 2.5 yd home decor fabric – if your fabric is 56-58″ wide, you’ll be able to get three runners out of one length. Cut the length in three equal pieces, or 18″ wide. For a 7″ runner, cut the fabric 88″ long. You can adjust the length to whatever you’d like – just add 4″ to the desired finished length to account for hems.

Backing fabric – To make a 7′ long runner, you’ll need to buy 2.5 yd quilting cotton or muslin fabric – if your fabric is 44″ wide, you’ll be able to get three runners out of one length, just as the front fabric (you’ll see below why the backing fabric is narrower than the front fabric). Cut the length in three equal pieces again, or 14″ wide. Cut to an equal length as the front fabric.

*The cutting measurements above will give you a finished runner of 16″ wide.

That’s it! The back of your runner will look like this…

They make great gifts (for others and yourself :)), and are easy to switch out for any holiday or occasion.

You can read about our DIY farmhouse table and the chairs I re-did here, and I also shared a tutorial on how to reupholster dining room chairs with laminate fabric (best decision ever) here!

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Comments

Hi there! I was really excited to try this, I think your runner looks amazing! However, in my samples, they do not look so amazing. I’m not sure if I’m missing something (since I’m new to sewing) or not. Can you recommend any videos to help me make a great looking table runner with backing. Thank you!

Sarah Beth – you just need to match up the long edges, which are the same length. The short edges on each side will gape, which they’re supposed to. So as long as the long edges are matched along the raw edges (with the front fabric gaping since it’s wider than the back), you’ll be good!